As the Felicity Jones and Kristen Stewart episodes of Saturday Night Live have proven, the weekly live sketch series hasn’t lost its satirical bite — factoring out Donald Trump’s disastrous 2015 hosting gig. Much of this has to do with Alec Baldwin’s popular (and decently paid) impression of the new president and inspired surprises like Melissa McCarthy’s appearance as Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Yet the program’s long-running news segment, “Weekend Update” and current hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che have played important roles.
Maybe that’s why, according to Politico, NBC is reportedly considering the possibility of producing and airing Weekend Update as a weekly, half-hour series separate from its main run on SNL. After all, per the same report Variety recently revealed the show’s total viewership had increased 22 percent from this time last year — a big bump likely caused by the rise (and many falls) of President Trump.
Representatives from NBC and SNL have not commented officially on the matter. Yet as Splitsider notes, this wouldn’t be the first time Weekend Update has spun off from its parent program. Throughout the 2008 presidential election, the Seth Meyers-led segment aired episodes on Thursdays. More recently, current hosts Jost and Che took the show on the road to the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention for MSNBC.
(Via Politico and Splitsider)
